Innovation, Trade and Rural Development Minister Trevor Taylor held a technical briefing and news conference today to laud the merits of that controversial $15-million cable deal. This is something that should have been done on November 2nd when the original announcement was made, not 20 days later in the middle of a lingering political controversy. Government and industry insiders complain that the benefits of this new fibre optic link have been lost in the noise over the personal connections the premier has to the key players in the cable firms. All of this should have been anticipated. This technical briefing is nearly three weeks overdue. Coming now it looks like a defensive public relations move rather than an attempt to explain the deal.